Because He Is…

‘Papi says it is wrong of parents to presume that they know better, or know more than their child does. They may be biologically older than their child, but in their experience as parents, they’re of the same age. So if I was his two-year-old daughter, he was my two-year-old father. And we were both learning and evolving together – he as my father and me as his daughter.’ All of us know Gulzar as a film-maker, screenplay and dialogue writer, lyricist par excellence, author and poet. Because He Is… presents a facet of the icon that none of us are aware of – as a father. In iridescent prose, his daughter, Meghna, documents his life, revealing the man behind the legend: in every way a hands-on father, who prepared her for school without fail every day, braiding her hair and tying her shoelaces, and who despite his busy career in cinema, always made it a point to end his workday at 4 p.m. because her school ended at that time, and who wrote a book for her birthday every year till she was thirteen. From her earliest memories of waking up in the morning to the strains of him playing the sitar to him writing the songs for her films now, Meghna presents an intimate portrait of a father who indulged her in every way and yet raised her to be independent and confident of the choices she made. She also records his phenomenal creative oeuvre, the many trials and tribulations of his personal and professional life, through all of which she remained a priority. Beautifully designed and illustrated with never-before-seen photographs, Because He Is… offers an incredible insight into the bond between a father and a daughter.

Meghna Gulzar began her professional career in 1989 as a freelance writer for The Times of India. A graduate in sociology from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, Meghna assisted noted film-maker Saeed Akhtar Mirza on the National Award-winning film Naseem; and then went on to do a short course in film-making from the Tisch School of Arts, New York University, New York. She assisted her father on Maachis and Hu Tu Tu. Along with scripting her own films, Meghna has made documentaries for Doordarshan, directed videos for several music albums, and also anchored several TV shows including The Amul India Show. Her first feature film, Filhaal… (2002), addressed the issue of surrogate motherhood. She also directed A Pocketful of Poems – a short film on the celluloid and literary works of her father, for the Sahitya Akademi. Her feature film based on the Noida double-murder case of 2008 – Talvar – premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and garnered rave reviews and tremendous audience appreciation worldwide. Meghna’s latest feature film Raazi has received both critical acclaim and audience appreciation, becoming one of the biggest box-office hits of 2018. She is currently working on her next film, based on the life of Field Marshal Sam H.F.J. Manekshaw MC.